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Nightly News
November 25, 2013

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NBC News
November 25, 2013

This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:The leader of
Afghanistan
,
Hamid Karzai
, has angered and puzzled American leaders lately from
President Obama
on down. This morning on
live television
, on
MSNBC
, a well-known American diplomat and former
UN
official floated out a theory about why
Karzai
has been acting so strange lately. It attracted a lot of attention instantly. Our chief
foreign affairs
correspondent
Andrea Mitchell
has more.

ANDREA MITCHELL reporting:Hamid Karzai
has done it again, promising tribal leaders they can veto a planned
US military
operation in
Kandahar
. A day earlier he had threatened, "I swear that I'm going to join the
Taliban
" if the US didn't stop pressuring him over election complaints. Last Friday
Hillary Clinton
had what aides called a forceful
telephone conversation
with
Karzai
about other harsh comments he'd made about the US. This after
President Obama
flew all the way to
Kabul
to chastise
Karzai
last week. Today on
MSNBC
's "Daily Rundown," former Ambassador
Peter Galbraith
, a longtime
Karzai
critic, suggested the Afghan leader could be using
illegal drugs
.

Mr. PETER GALBRAITH (Former United Nations Envoy to Afghanistan):Some of the palace insiders say that he has a certain fondness for some of
Afghanistan
's most profitable exports.

MITCHELL:That set off a diplomatic
storm
.
White House
officials say they see no evidence of
drug use
. But there's no question
Karzai
has been behaving strangely, says
NBC
's
Richard Engel
.

RICHARD ENGEL reporting:Afghan officials and analysts have told me that over the last several weeks, not just months, he's been acting very erratic, very emotional, very unstable, that he's been having outbursts in private
Cabinet
sessions.

MITCHELL:Karzai
even hosted
Iran
's
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
in
Kabul
last month and paid a return visit to
Tehran
, widely viewed as payback after the
White House
canceled an invitation for him to visit
Washington
. Today the
White House
didn't rule out canceling another visit next month.

Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary):We certainly would evaluate whatever continued or further remarks President
Karzai
makes as to whether that's constructive to have such a meeting, sure.